Internet scams are hardly new, but eSecurityPlanet has the story of why they’re a growing threat even though more people are aware of the dangers.
Internet users are more educated and suspicious than ever before but, according to a survey conducted in October for storage software giant EMC’s RSA security division, they’re still falling victim to phishing scams at a higher rate than ever before.
RSA’s 2010 Global Online Consumer Security Survey, conducted by InfoSurv, asked 4,539 people to characterize their online behavior and their awareness of trojans, viruses, and sophisticated phishing scams that continue to plague Internet users.
And while 76 percent of the users surveyed reported they were aware of the threat of a phishing attack — up from 38 percent in a similar 2007 RSA survey — 29 percent of respondents said they had been the victim of a phishing scam, a nearly sixfold increase from 2007 when only one in 20 people queried admitted to being duped by a phishing plot.
